The disclosure herein relates to a method for joining an upper sheet metal part and of a lower sheet metal part of which at least one is formed as an organic sheet metal part.
Components are termed organic sheet metal parts which as a result of their table-like form can be handled like sheet metals, but which consist of a non-metallic composite material such as a fiber or fabric reinforced plastic. Such composite materials generally have high strength fibers, such as, for example aramid fibers, carbon fibers or glass fibers, which are either present as relatively short filling fibers or as long filaments or in the form of a fabric fabricated from filaments embedded in a matrix material of plastic. Thermoplastic materials can indeed be used as plastic; however, for coachwork components, duroplastic plastics are normally used. In the coachwork construction and in other fields of technology organic sheet metal parts are increasingly being used as a result of their characteristics such as their lightness, their high mechanical loadability and their good deformability.
A problem in the connection of two organic sheet metal parts or of an organic sheet metal part to a metallic sheet metal part consists however in the fact that some current joining processes, such as, e.g. the self-pierced rivet process are not suitable for fiber or fabric reinforced plastics.
The requirement thus exists to enable a simple and effective joining of sheet metal parts of which at least one is an organic sheet metal part.